


Remember Our Promise

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Arguing, Fenris Needs a Hug, Light Angst, M/M, set during Inquisition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 09:20:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6464716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is anger when Hawke says he is going to Skyhold. There is anger, and then there is... <i>this</i>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"Don't tell me you're crying." It came out blunted into a joke, horror tearing through his mind because not once, <i>not once </i>had he seen Fenris broken down this far.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Remember Our Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Why? I don't know. It's really hard to make Fenris cry. Which is _probably_ a good thing. xD
> 
> I do not own _Dragon Age II_. Thanks for reading!

He had known telling him would elicit a reaction, but he hadn't expected this.

He had expected anger. Which he had gotten, when he had immediately told Fenris of the letter he had received from Varric. He got cursing, both in Common and Tevene. He got shattered mugs, tea spilled with broken glass when his attempts to calm him down went wrong. He got raised voices, words spat out in that deep voice, coarse and rough and dripping with poison - _you said never again, Hawke, you PROMISED me!_ He got a right hook that he only just ducked out of the way of, sputtering his excuses- _I can't_ not _go, Fenris, you_ know _I can't, they need me._

" _I_ need you!" Fenris had shouted, and here they were.

The dishes were still rattling from where Fenris had slammed his hand against the tabletop, turned away from Hawke.

"Fenris..."

"No." Fenris's voice had lost the anger, replaced with something that was so much worse than the fractured glass and dodged punches. "Just go. Go to _them_."

Leaving him behind, letting him go, those were always the worst parts. He had gone out on his own, just as Fenris had, since they had fled their home. Without steady income from taking on jobs in Kirkwall, they both had had to do their own part to afford their living, meagre as it were. But this? This was different, this was dangerous. And this was longer than a week, or two, and it was _Corypheus_.

But Hawke was being honest. He couldn't _not_ go. Even if he wasn't helping people as much as he had before - he had learned, and how those people had relied on him - Corypheus was _his_ problem. It was something that he, evidently, hadn't finished. Now more people were being hurt because he had failed to end it. He had to fix it. He couldn't live with himself if he didn't.

Fenris knew that.

"If it wasn't Corypheus, if there wasn't all of this lyrium-"

"Don't."

"You know I want you there." Hawke hesitated a few steps away. He didn't think he'd get a punch any longer, but he didn't really want to risk it. "I just don't want you hurt."

Fenris laughed. Strangled, that sardonic way of his that made the hair on the back of Hawke's neck stand up. "Too _late_." His voice came out wrong, too thin, not matching the laugh. Pure bravado.

Hawke cleared the distance between them, brushing his hand against his shoulder. "I'm not picking them over you, Fenris."

"Don't you dare say it's for my safety again," Fenris rasped. "I can take care of _myself_."

"I know you can." Hawke wrapped his arms around Fenris. He still wouldn't look at him. "I've lost so many people that are important to me. I don't want to lose you, too."

"I don't want to lose _you_."

Finally it clicked why Fenris's voice sounded the way it did. Why he wasn't _looking_ at him, _Maker_. "Don't tell me you're crying." It came out blunted into a joke, horror tearing through his mind because not once, _not once_ had he seen Fenris broken down this far. Through everything they had been through, Fenris had fought tooth and motherfucking _nail_. He didn't break, and if Hawke was the reason that Fenris had gone over the edge, if _he_ was the one _shattering_ him, after all this time...

"I'm _not_." Fenris burst free of Hawke's arms, shoving away. His fingers flew to his face and then away, back ramrod straight as he strode away.

Andraste's entire _ass_.

"Fenris!" Hawke grabbed his arm. Couldn't let him walk away, not like this. He couldn't fix this, but he couldn't let it be like... _this_.

"No."

"Look-"

"Let _go_!" Fenris jerked against the grip on his arm; Hawke didn't let go, couldn't this time, not before he had a chance to try and help; it was his job to soothe Fenris's fears, and wipe his tears away, even if he was the _reason_ \- "Just go!" Fenris spat, still spitting vile and venom through the waver in his voice. "Do what you want, Hawke, it doesn't matter, _leave_ _me_ -"

" _Fenris_." Hawke spun him around, and he felt, _felt_ , the tension leave Fenris's body a split before Fenris collapsed, crumbling to his knees at Hawke's feet.

Again Hawke was struck with pure, abstract horror as he stared down at him.

There was an appropriate response to all of this. Surely? He was drawing a blank. He just wanted to _fix_ it, and he _couldn't_. He knew he couldn't.

"Fenris." He crashed to his knees, grabbing him around the shoulders to pull against his chest. "Please don't cry. _Please_." Too late. Fenris wasn't trying to hide it any longer, fingers splayed against the floor as he stared at the ground in those seconds before Hawke had pulled him close. "Everything's going to be fine. I'm going to come _back_ , Fenris, I swear it."

Fenris's head was pillowed against his shoulder. He didn't hug him back.

"Fenris? It's going to be okay." He ran his fingers into his hair, sweeping it behind a familiar pointed ear. "I will come back to you, I _promise_."

Fenris thawed, turning enough to press his nose into Hawke's neck. "... you can't make that promise."

"I made that promise before we went to meet Meredith," Hawke said softly. "So did you. And we left Kirkwall, together. Remember?"

Fenris grunted. Maybe a confirmation.

"I promise I won't die," Hawke said, pressing a kiss to Fenris's temple.

Fenris sighed shakily, fingers seizing in the back of Hawke's shirt. " _Festis bei_ -" His voice cracked out again, Hawke picked it up.

" _-umo canavarum_." His Tevene was horrible, but Fenris had been selectively teaching him through the years since they'd met. "I know," he said softly.

Fenris laughed a little, dryly, sighing against Hawke's hair. He didn't say anything else. Neither did Hawke. There weren't precise words for this sort of thing. Hawke didn't know what to say, so he didn't, just sat there and held Fenris in his arms as tightly as he could.

He would be fine. Fenris would be fine. In a few months, if it took that long, he'd be back, and this would all be a forgotten memory. And then, with any luck, he would never have to leave Fenris's side again.

Yeah.

They would be fine.

Hawke would make sure of it.

 

**Author's Note:**

> FOR THE RECORD I NEVER LEFT HAWKE IN THE FADE IN MY PLAYTHROUGH AND I NEVER WOULD JUST SAYING.


End file.
